


Goodbye For Now

by This_world_of_beautiful_monsters



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW Comics), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:40:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27143968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/This_world_of_beautiful_monsters/pseuds/This_world_of_beautiful_monsters
Summary: Leo pays a visit to Karai before her departure to Japan. Takes place between TMNT #50 and #51.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Goodbye For Now

Karai finished up most her crying in the bathroom, so she could clean her face before she started packing. A few tears well up in her eyes, but she stubbornly blinks them away. Only children and weaklings give in to grief; she has not been either for a very long time.

There's a knock on her door. "May I come in?" Leonardo asks, voice softer than she has ever heard it, and Karai freezes.

If she lets him in, that implies he has power over her, which is unthinkable. But what's the alternative? Let the beast think she's too scared to face him? She wrestles with herself for a few seconds before letting out a grudging "yes."

He enters on silent feet, closing the door behind him. Karai goes back to packing, trying not to think about how neatly their positions have reversed. Once she was the one looming into his personal space, and Leo was the defiant, disoriented one.

"I suppose you're _chunin_ yet again," she says acidly. "Do you want me to kneel?"

He ignores her. "Are you going back to Japan so you can gather an army to come kill us all?"

 _Well_. She blinks up at him, hiding the way her heart pounds in her chest. "I don't remember you being this blunt."

He narrows his eyes at her through that ridiculous blue mask. "You didn't know me, you knew Saki's puppet. And you didn't answer my question."

Karai rolls her eyes and slides a sword into its case, watching her heads carefully to make sure they're not shaking. "Not at the moment, no. I'll let you know if the plan changes. Why, did the rat change his mind about letting me live?"

She keeps her voice light, ears pricked for the sounds of blades sliding out of their sheaths. He probably wouldn't be able to stab her in the back--but then again, she didn't think he'd be able to slice apart Koya's wings, either.

But Leo just sighs and leans against the wall. "If my father wanted you dead, he'd have killed you himself." _Dead._ A flash of bright red arcs across her vision and she shakes it away.

She keeps talking, trying to distract herself. "What do you want, then? To gloat?" She's not sure what the protocol is here. If Saki had won tonight he'd already have been butchered and they both know it.

Leo shrugs. "The thought crossed my mind. I mean, you did kidnap me and try to kill me a bunch of times. Not to mention that none of this would have happened if you hadn't brought that _demon_ back from the dead."

Karai's about to snarl at him for calling her grandfather a demon, but Leo's still talking. "But if you hadn't brought him back, we wouldn't have come back either. And besides, you suffered plenty for it."

"Excuse me?" She's on her feet, uncaring facade forgotten, and strides over to him. If it's a fight he's here for, she's happy to give him one. Her grandfather may have lost his way, but how dare she suggest she was some kind of _victim_ is an unforgivable insult.

Leo doesn't flinch. "He treated you like shit, Karai."

She clenches her fists; the only reason she's not running him through right now is that she'll never get out of this building alive. "You don't know _anything_."

"I know that he let you go crazy, worrying about being replaced by me even though you hadn't done anything wrong. I know he let me humiliate you, encouraged it, even. I know he played us off each other in some idiotic test of strength, instead of keeping the clan--"

"And is your father so perfect?" she snarls. "He managed to drive away your little brat of a brother, after all."

That hits a nerve, and she's rewarded by the sight of his jaw twitching. When he manages to speak, however, his voice is perfectly steady. "Mikey made his choice, and we don't agree with it, but we respect it. We're not going to chase him down and cut his head off for 'disobedience'. Can you say the same about your grandfather?"

She wants to say that him and his wretched clan are a bunch of weak, foolish children, that the Shredder was strong in ways they'll never understand, but she stops herself. Because for all his strength, his endless determination and refusal to compromise, Oroku Saki is still dead. Killed by Splinter, the rat that she believed up to the very last second would never be able to do the deed. And she's still not sure why that happened, why the foundation of her world has been ripped off its axis.

Angry at everything--Leo, herself, her grandfather, Splinter--she stalks away and starts viciously rolling up her tatami mat. She waits for Leo to decide that he's won this ridiculous verbal sparring match and leave her in peace.

Instead, he changes tack. "Why did you give Father control of the Foot clan?"

That stills her again, especially because she's been asking the question on and off since she gave Hamato Yoshi her sword. Her voice is stiff. "You heard what I said."

"I heard what you decided to say. Are you hoping to make my family targets of the underworld? Were you trying to create friction between us?"

She scoffs. "Michelango's departure was a happy accident. I assumed that all your brothers were as ruthless as you."

"I'm not--" He stops short with an annoyed hiss, angry at himself for falling into her trap.

Karai rounds on him with a delicate smile. "Oh? Tell that to Koya. Between you and me, I think she would have been happier off dead than grounded." She lets a note of mocking approval creep into her voice. "A perfect revenge, really. Brutal, effective--something my grandfather would have been proud of. And best of all, you get to convince yourself that you stuck to your father's standards. Or rather, his _former_ standards."

He's taking deep breaths now, trying to keep his temper under control. Karai plows on. "Let me make it clear: you and your idiot brothers can rot for all I care. I gave the clan to Splinter because he didn't seem likely to run it into the ground. I hope he doesn't let the gangs tear him apart, because I don't feel like cleaning up his messes."

She thinks that's the end of the matter, but as she's zipping her bags closed Leo asks "What are you going to do in Japan, anyway?"

"None of your business," she mutters.

He raises an eye ridge. "You don't know, do you?"

"Shut up," she hisses. It's a juvenile response, and one that basically answers his question, but she doesn't know what else to say. The Foot Clan has been her life for so long and without it she's spinning in the dark, a feeling he probably understands all too well.

Why does that thought make her feel guilty? She never felt bad about getting him brainwashed before; it wasn't her decision, even if she helped the Shredder capture him.

Shame, grief, fear...this has been a night of painful, unfamiliar emotions, and she wants it to be over. Karai shoulders her bags and strides for the door, silently daring Leo to block her way.

He doesn't, but he still manages to freeze her with a final question. "When we fought in your sensei's dojo, did you let me win?"

She sighs. "Yes, so I could hopefully stab you in that idiotic shell later on. Any more queries, oh great and noble _chunin?_ "

Leo straightens to look her in the eye. "I'm asking," he says, "because the Shredder probably wouldn't have had so much self-control. He would have torn me apart no matter the consequences. I know that, because he's done it before."

She doesn't like being reminded of the fact that this bizarre green monstrosity was once a human boy, before her grandfather cut off his head. That's one of the things she's always been quietly jealous about regarding the turtles: the fact they got to experience the Japan of three hundred years ago, when people didn't lose their way like her grandfather had or grow weak like her father.

Leo takes a step towards her, so that they're close enough to kiss. Or bite each other's noses off. "I want to know if you'll choose the smart path, the wise path," he says. "I don't think you deserve to die but if you come back from Japan baying for my father's blood, you will. Maybe it will be my hand, maybe it won't, but you someone will kill you and I don't think you deserve that."

Karai gives him a long, hard look for the first time. He really is different from the wild-eyed, vicious creature that her grandfather dressed in black and kept as a pet. His stance is different, the way he holds himself, the way he looks at her without contempt or confusion. 

But there is something dark in him, something that Karai sees whenever she looks in the mirror. Oroku Saki has left his mark on them both. She's not sure how to feel about that.

So instead she mutters "I'd like to see you try," and stalks out of the room.

He follows her through the silent Foot quarters, his eyes burning into the back of their skull. The ninja they pass bow, although it's hard to tell who they're showing respect to. Perhaps they're just working on autopilot as they try to acclimate themselves to this freakish new world order.

Leo's remaining two brothers are waiting for them at the private tarmac, along with Alopex, Koya, and Bludgeon. The white fox's nose twitches as they approach, and she turns a baleful gaze on Karai. She responds with a smirk, taking careful note of the way Alopex has Raphael's arm slung protectively over her shoulder. Emotional attachment is a weakness, something that the traitorous bitch might have to learn the hard way.

Koya is less restrained at the sight of Leo. "You _bastard_ ," she hisses, almost toppling over as she lurches awkwardly to her feet. "You slimy little cocksucker, do you know what you _did_ to me?"

"Hush," Bludgeon whispers, running a gentle hand up and down her back. His milky gaze shifts somewhere to the left of Karai's head. "We are ready to go, Mistress."

"Yeah, hurry up an' beat it so the new owners can trash the place," says Raphael. "Raph," Leo warns, shooting him a look.

"What? I was just thinkin' we could stick a sound system in that dorky throne room, invite Angel and her pals, scare up some spray paint..."

Karai ignores the thug and turns to Koya, who's still snarling at a blank-faced Leo. "Rip your motherfucking _guts_ out, you backstabbing faggot, you and your whole goddamn--"

"Stop whining and help Bludgeon aboard," Karai barks. Koya jerks to a stop and stares at her for a second, beak opening as if she's about to protest, but then her shoulders slump and she turns to start talking Bludgeon up the airplane steps. The sight of someone still following her orders gratifies Karai more then it probably should.

She's about to follow when Donatello approaches her, holding out a small bag. "Here," he explains. "It's, um, some stuff I got for Bludgeon's eyes and Koya's wings." He shuffles his feet, seeming embarrassed by the whole situation. "The damage itself is pretty permanent, but it'll fend off any infection. There're some sedatives, too, in case Koya freaks out in midair or something."

Karai takes the bag and bows her gratitude, because if the Hamatos wanted them dead they wouldn't have to waste time with poison. She's still not entirely sure how Donatello's still alive, considering what Bebop and Rocksteady did to him, or exactly how that robot figured into the equation. She doesn't know if those two idiotic brutes were given the mercy shown to her, nor does she care.

Back tall, she turns to face them all and bows slightly keeping her eyes locked on Leo's. "Until we meet again, Clan Hamato," she says, voice ringing through the night. "I leave New York in your hands."

Then she turns and ascends into the plane, proud of herself for not showing fear. Because everything scares Karai: the possibility that the plane is booby-trapped, the possibility that Splinter is right now arranging for her to be assassinated in Japan so he doesn't risk alienating his sons even more, the possibility that she'll be left in peace and have to figure all this out for herself.

She stows her luggage and makes herself comfortable as the plane prepares for her attack. Bludgeon does his best to comfort Koya, whose mutters only become more hysterical when the wheels leave the tarmac. They might end up needing those sedatives after all.

Karai watches the mutants melt away into splotches of green and white, vivid against the darkness. She breathes deep, trying not to lose herself in the memory of Leo's words or the _thunk_ of her grandfather's severed head. She makes herself look away from the Foot Building as it grows smaller, eventually into the blaze of New York City. That's not her home, not now.

They reach cloud level, and the night swallows them up.


End file.
